Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Biden tells Netanyahu Gaza aid strikes ‘unacceptable’ and Israel must end civilian suffering to keep US support – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For more on the Biden-Netanyahu phone call, you can read our full report:

Jill Biden pleaded with her husband, Joe Biden, to “stop it, stop it now”, referring to the war in Gaza, the president told guests at the White House, according to a report.

At a meeting with Muslim community members on Tuesday, a guest told Biden that his wife had disapproved of him attending the event because of the president’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza, the New York Times reported yesterday. The report states:

Mr Biden replied that he understood. The first lady, he said, had been urging him to ‘Stop it, stop it now,’ according to an attendee who heard his remarks.

Just like the president, the first lady is heartbroken over the attacks on aid workers and the ongoing loss of innocent lives in Gaza. They both want Israel to do more to protect civilians.

Continue reading...

Tories investigating Alan Duncan’s comments on party’s pro-Israel ‘extremists’

Posted on by

Former MP has said Conservative minister Tom Tugendhat and peer Eric Pickles should be sacked

The Conservative former minister Alan Duncan is being investigated by the party after he said pro-Israel “extremists” within the party, including some ministers and peers, should be expelled because they refuse to support international law.

Duncan, who served as a foreign minister and an aid minister before stepping down as an MP in 2019, named Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and the peer and former cabinet minister Eric Pickles among those who should be kicked out.

Continue reading...

Food charity demands independent inquiry into Israeli killing of aid staff

Posted on by

World Central Kitchen asks countries of workers who died to join its call, as Biden and Netanyahu hold first phone call since attack

The international food charity World Central Kitchen has called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed seven of its aid workers in Gaza on Monday, as Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu held their first phone call since the attack.

WCK asked Australia, Canada, Poland, the US and the UK, whose citizens were killed, to join it in demanding “an independent, third-party’’ inquiry into the strikes.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan says UK arms sales to Israel have ‘got to stop’

Posted on by

London mayor’s comments come as other senior Labour figures call for government to take action after killing of aid workers

Sadiq Khan has become the most senior Labour politician to call for an immediate end of UK arms sales to Israel, with a number of other prominent party figures also saying the government should take action after the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza.

The London mayor said Rishi Sunak must halt arms sales, saying: “It’s got to stop.”

Continue reading...

Legal assessment of Israel’s actions in Gaza risks being subsumed in Tory row

Posted on by

Conservative supporters of Israel want David Cameron to dial back criticism and accept defeat of Hamas is in UK’s interest

A legal assessment by the UK Foreign Office of whether Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza risks being subsumed in a Conservative row over the party’s loyalty to the country, and by rival judgments on the damage to British interests in the wider Middle East if the UK is not seen to distance itself from Israel’s methods.

Judging by the last Tory leadership contest, in which Liz Truss courted votes by promising to transfer the UK embassy to Jerusalem, there is a good chance Israel will feature in any leadership debate after a predicted general election defeat this year.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: Israel says investigation into its air strike that killed aid workers in Gaza to take weeks – as it happened

Posted on by

Israel government says its report will be ‘transparent’ after seven people working for food charity killed in an Israeli air strike. This live blog is closed

Reuters has spoken with Israelis who have been displaced from their communities in the far north of the country, close to the UN-drawn blue line that has separated Israel from Lebanon since 2000.

Israel evacuated a number of communities, totalling about 60,000 people, almost immediately after the 7 October attack in southern Israel. There has been an almost constant exchange of fire between Israel’s military and Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces inside Lebanon.

What we saw in the south on 7 October was basically Hamas “stealing the thunder” from Hezbollah. If anything, Hezbollah is more of a border threat than Hamas was.

Continue reading...

Majority of voters in UK back banning arms sales to Israel, poll finds

Posted on by

Exclusive: YouGov survey indicates loss of support among people in Britain for Israel’s war in Gaza

A majority of voters in Britain back a ban on arms sales to Israel, according to a YouGov poll.

One of the first up-to-date assessments of whether Israel is losing public support in key allied states, the research also suggests most people believe the Israeli government is violating human rights in Gaza.

Continue reading...

Israel accused of targeting aid convoy ‘car by car’ as pressure grows over Gaza tactics

Posted on by

Founder of charity that lost seven people hits out at IDF as friendly governments decry drone attack

Israel is facing mounting international pressure to justify its conduct in the war in Gaza as the bodies of six foreign aid workers killed in a drone attack were repatriated to their families.

Seven members of World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed when a drone repeatedly hit their convoy of three cars, which were clearly identified as belonging to the charity, after it left an aid warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Monday night.

Continue reading...

Israel’s rules of engagement seem looser than ever – if they are followed at all

Posted on by

The deaths of seven aid workers add credence to allegations by observers that commanders on the ground in Gaza may ‘do as they please’

The killing of seven foreign aid workers by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza has once again raised serious questions about the IDF’s opaque and highly permissive rules of engagement, whether those rules are enforced, and how willing it is to investigate breaches.

Put simply, rules of engagement define how and in what circumstances it is permissible to use force, including lethal violence, during operations, and at what potential risk to civilians.

Continue reading...

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

Posted on by

Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants

The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war.

In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: UN human rights council to consider call for Israel arms embargo – as it happened

Posted on by

If draft brought forward by Pakistan is adopted, it would mark the first time that the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the war in Gaza

The UK should stop arming Israel, a former national security adviser has said, after seven international aid workers were killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike.

Lord Ricketts, who was also the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Sometimes in conflict, you get a moment where there’s such global outrage that it crystalises a sense that things can’t go on like this.”

Continue reading...

UK government under pressure from Tories to stop arming Israel

Posted on by

Lib Dems also call for action to suspend arms exports to Israel after seven aid workers killed in Gaza

Ministers are under pressure from Tory MPs and peers to stop arming Israel after seven humanitarian workers were killed by an airstrike in Gaza.

Four Conservatives told the Guardian on Wednesday that the UK should stop exporting arms to Israel after its strike, which killed three British aid workers.

Continue reading...

Sunak calls for investigation as British aid workers killed in Israeli airstrike named

Posted on by

PM demands ‘transparent investigation’ from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as names emerge of three Britons killed in Gaza

Rishi Sunak has called for an urgent investigation into the deaths of three British aid workers working for the charity World Central Kitchen who were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit an aid convoy in Gaza.

WSK confirmed that British victims John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, who were working for the charity’s security team, were among seven of its staff killed.

Continue reading...

Israel divided: Netanyahu’s coalition crisis – podcast

Posted on by

A cabinet split over military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and large street protests demanding the release of hostages are threatening the prime minister’s grip on power. Bethan McKernan reports from Jerusalem

As the war in Gaza approaches its seventh month, tens of thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities in Israel have demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza and called for new elections.

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, tells Michael Safi it is a moment of political danger for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faces pressure from within his ruling coalition over the issue of exemption from military service granted to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Israel’s allies, including the US, are piling pressure on Netanyahu to urgently allow aid into Gaza, which faces a famine, and to spell out how he will address the aftermath of the conflict.

Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders to Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Stop murdering innocent people’

Posted on by

Vermont senator makes remarks after Israeli strike kills seven aid workers, amid war that has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians

The Vermont senator and former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has a message for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.”

Sanders delivered his blunt message in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, a day after seven aid workers were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.

Continue reading...

Charities halt Gaza aid after drone attack that killed seven workers

Posted on by

Humanitarian groups say they cannot operate safely after Israeli targeting of food charity convoy prompts international outcry

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza seems likely to worsen after charities announced they are suspending operations in the territory in the aftermath of an Israeli drone attack which repeatedly targeted a clearly identified convoy of international aid workers, killing seven.

The strikes on a team from World Central Kitchen (WCK) led the charity – along with other aid organisations such as Anera, which helps refugees around the Middle East, and the US-based Project Hope, which focuses on healthcare – to announce that it would pause operations in Gaza to protect its staff.

Continue reading...

British Steel wins multimillion-pound contract for Egyptian rail project

Posted on by

Around 9,500 tonnes of track will be provided for north African country’s first fully electrified mainline

British Steel has won a multimillion-pound contract to supply rail for a new route in north Africa, the company has announced.

Approximately 9,500 tonnes of track, produced in Scunthorpe, will be provided for Egypt’s first fully electrified mainline and freight network which stretches from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu says deaths of seven aid workers in Gaza is ‘tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people’

Posted on by

World Central Kitchen to pause operations immediately after deadly convoy strike by Israel; workers from UK, US, Australia, Poland and Palestine among dead

We’ve launched this video report on the Gaza strike, including footage of people being transported on stretchers as ambulances flash nearby.

Australia’s prime minister says the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza is “completely unacceptable” and “beyond any reasonable circumstances”, saying the government will call in the Israeli ambassador and contact Israel’s government.

Continue reading...

‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza

Posted on by

IDF says it ‘completely rejects’ charge that its soldiers deliberately fired on any of the thousands of civilians killed in Israeli offensive

Dr Fozia Alvi was making her rounds of the intensive care unit on her final day at the battered European public hospital in southern Gaza when she stopped next to two young arrivals with facial injuries and breathing tubes in their windpipes.

“I asked the nurse, what’s the history? She said that they were brought in a couple of hours ago. They had sniper shots to the brain. They were seven or eight years old,” she said.

Continue reading...

Artists call on Manchester venue to reinstate event celebrating Palestinian voices

Posted on by

More than 300 artists and cultural workers write open letter to Home venue over cancellation of Voices of Resilience event

More than 300 cultural workers, theatre and film artists, including Maxine Peake and Asif Kapadia, have called for a Manchester arts venue to reinstate an event celebrating Palestinian voices.

Home Manchester last week cancelled the Voices of Resilience evening, scheduled for 22 April, citing “recent publicity” and safety concerns for audiences and artists.

Continue reading...